Marriage & Family Clinic

MY TRAINING I received specialized training and continue to participate in specific training in 3 main schools of relationship building and repair: 1 -The Gottman Institute for Relationships. Providing the Research and building blocks based on 7 Key Principles. Including the importance of turning the electronics off and spending more intentional time together to maintain the friendship.....to Building a Sense of gratitude and Positivity together.....to learning how to make Effective Relationship Repairs after a fight. 2 -Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT) The most researched relationship counseling model, follow up shows that EFT helps couples engaged in therapy create lasting relationship satisfaction and behavioral changes. 3-Pragmatic/Experiential Therapy An approach which translates research and science about how the brain processes information and emotions into practical methods for improving relationships and increasing personal success. My Style I tend to be both direct and directive. Helping people develop a fuller range of abilities to respond under pressure. I am direct in the sense that I’m not going to beat around the bush. I will tell you hard things to hear when needed. Unfortunately, at times I make mistaking in my delivery and overlook the need to have a well-established sense of connection with someone I am working with - leaving them angry and disappointed. I regret every one of those times I failed to help someone and have always been committed to learning from my mistakes. Life is very humbling at times. I encourage everyone to bring those times up with me. When I catch my mistake or they point it out to me, we are able to use it as an opportunity to go back and uncover what was missed and apply the tools to get back into a place of collaboration. At times, the gap is too big. I missed something important or I hit a sensitive spot and triggered too strong of an emotional response and they pull back to protective themselves from the frustration of pushing forward. Or, we might just not be collaborative match and some decide to search out a better match or they are not ready yet. MY JOURNEY After finishing my education with a Master of Divinity Degree and joining the American Association for Marriage in Family Therapy; I worked with Families and Children for 8 years with Child Protective Services before going into Private Practice in the mid 90's. and becoming licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist. Along the way, I started narrowing my practice to Adults and Relationship related issues. I chose to follow a path of research across multiple fields and practitioners who were developing scientifically-based methods.